My Top 1000 Songs #1007: Radio

Teenage Fanclub's 1991 breakthrough Bandwagonesque was such a revelation for me at the time, its blend of Big Star's melodic pop with postpunk bravado the sort of thing I played to absolute death when I first bought it, that I couldn't help but feel some trepidation when its follow-up landed two years later. But 1993's Thirteen (maybe driving home the Big Star connection with that title?) was a pleasant surprise, at least as solid as its predecessor. It was even more full of amped-up power pop gems, to the extent it's all but impossible to pick a favorite.

I vacillate among many of the cuts, but have landed on "Radio," if only because it's the most straightforward pop track, a song that from the first listen suggests a better universe where this sort of song is constantly sitting atop the Top 40 on every radio station on the planet. The fact that it's not makes the opening line--think I'll kill the radio, don't wanna hear this song--all the more resonant.

Live on Jools Holland 1993:

Live 2017: